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May 2

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Rituals of famous writers revealed

Whether you’re driven to writing with ideas exploding inside of you like Ray Bradbury or you take an hour later in the day to go over your morning pages like Joan Didion or you write in the middle of the living room with all kinds of white noise around you like E.B. White, you most likely have a writing routine or writing rituals you practice to make sure you get your words on paper.

Or, maybe, like Benjamin Franklin, you start each morning by asking yourself a question, “What good shall I do this day?” And you end each evening with another question, “What good have I done today?” Read more

May 1

What would you change if today was your last day?

What if you knew today was your last day on Earth? What would you wish?

The older I get, the more urgency I have to push forward with my writing goals. The idea of remembering you are going to die is one of the best ways to let go of fears and resistance. As a reminder, I’ve posted near my desk this quote by Apple founder Steve Jobs:

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

In January 2009, businessman Ric Elias had a front-row seat on Flight 1549, the plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River in New York. In this 5-minute TedTalk, you’ll hear what went through his mind in the moments before impact. See how surviving the crash led Elias to rethink how he lives his life.

Apr 30

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Good storytelling should disturb us

Years ago, when I first started writing prose, I remember a literary agent said he and his wife never watched TV unless they were at the gym or a local bar because they don’t even own a TV. They focus all of their attention on reading.

Looking for role models for my literary life, I thought, “Aha…I won’t watch TV either.” It made sense. Less time in front of the tube equals more time writing or reading. My husband and I didn’t watch much TV anyway, but we did have our favorite shows we’d record and watch later.

At some point in my literary life—after graduating from my MFA program—I realized that being a writer wasn’t just about the ability to write well. Just at important, if not more so, is the ability to tell a good story. Read more

Apr 29

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Don’t stop readers in their tracks: Four tips to maintain your story’s flow

One of the most important things we must not do to readers is bore them or stop the flow of the story. In my recent post, How not to write a story, I shared agent Margaret Bail’s tips and writing don’ts.

Here are several other points she and other agents, editors, and workshop presenters made during a panel discussion at the Las Vegas Writer’s Conference.

Character description. A common but ineffective way to describe your character is by having her look in a mirror or other reflective surface and describe what she sees.

Read more

Apr 26

Plot as a driver for change: A cat story

“Life is a journey, not a destination.” Ralph Waldo Emerson.

This week it’s raining cats at our house. Besides having a stray cat adopt us and become our “outdoor” boy, I also had to take one of our indoor boys, Simba, a 20-lb Maine Coon, to the vet.

Considering he hasn’t been out of the house in years (Simba, not the vet), it went pretty well. I did say “considering,” right?

I nonchalantly put the cat carrier on the bed next to Simba and then, like the Flash, snatched him up and shoved him in said crate before he could put up a fight. He hissed going in and then instantly learned how to meow. (Really, he doesn’t meow–he whines when he wants something). Read more

Apr 25

How one author acts out her writing

As a child, author Randall Platt wanted to be an actress. She wrote screenplays for her favorite western television shows, complete with roles for herself. As an adult, she pursued acting but eventually found that what she really wanted to do is write.

In a workshop at the Las Vegas Writer’s Conference, Platt, award-winning writer of Hellie Jondoeand other YA and adult fiction, shared how her experience as an actor carries over to writing.

Her lessons and tips:

Know your character’s motivation. Every character we create must have reasons for why they do what they do. To understand your characters’ motivation, you need to know their backstory. It shows how they’ll act and react. With each book she writes, Platt creates character sketches that include information about her characters’ religion, family, what they do for a living, their parents, and more. Some writers spend a “day in the life” of their character examining everything the character does. Other authors like to write letters to their characters to understand them. Read more

Apr 24

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Original idea & logline: using them to write a better story, part two

In my previous post, I wrote about the importance of writing down your one-sentence original idea. This is the very first idea you had—whether it’s about plot, character, or theme—that got you excited about writing your story. Reading your original idea each day before writing will keep you focused on your story. 

Another exercise is to develop your one-sentence logline. In his book, Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need, screenwriter Blake Snyder said that if we develop our logline before we begin writing, it will help us write a better manuscript.

According to Snyder, there are four main elements to a great logline:

  1. A good logline has to have irony. He gives an example from the blockbuster movie Pretty Woman: “A businessman falls in love with a hooker he hires to be his date for the weekend.” Pretty ironic, huh? Another way to define irony, Snyder said, is that something unexpected happens. He also calls this the “hook.” Read more
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